Ness Leland S. - Kangzhan: guide to Chinese ground forces 1937-45

Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces, 19371945 is the first English-language nutsand-bolts handbook dedicated to coverage of the organization and weapons of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. It uses a mixture of many Chinese secondary sources, including document collections, along with primary sources held in the West, among them original Chinese documents from the files of the US China Theater, now in the US National Archives.

A brief description of the war in China is followed by detailed examinations of the national arsenals, and the NRAs tactical organization and weaponry, featuring illustrations and data never before seen in the West.

Leland Ness has been conducting and supervising defense analysis and writing military history for over 40 years. He served as director of special projects at DMS/Janes, published a newsletter on ground ordnance for the defense industry, and has been an editor at Janes for the last ten years (for Janes Ammunition Handbook and Janes Infantry Weapons ). He is also the co-author of the classic Red Army Handbook , and the author of the HarperCollins WWII Tanks and Combat Vehicles , and the two-volume Rikugun , a study of the Japanese Army in World War II. He has been particularly interested in Asian military history since graduating with a degree in Oriental Studies and Language. During 28 years in the Army Reserve, he served with Headquarters, US Army Intelligence Agency, on active duty during Desert Storm.

Bin Shih was born in Tainan, Taiwan of first-generation mainlanders from the 1949 conflict. He graduated from Cheng Kung University with a degree in hydraulic engineering and later studied at Syracuse University. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry of the ROC Army and served as an S3 training officer. Always interested in Chinese history and small arms in general he started researching and collecting modern Chinese firearms in 1999 due to the absence of reliable information on the subject. He is also the author of Chinas Small Arms of the Second Sino-Japanese War (2005 in Taiwan; 2009 & 2014 in China; 2011 & 2014 in English).

Leland Ness

with

Bin Shih

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Published by Helion & Company 2016

Designed and typeset by Donald Sommerville, Montacute, Somerset

Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield Design ( www.battlefield-design.co.uk )

Text Leland Ness 2016

Photographs US National Archives unless otherwise noted

Front cover: The 74th Army was one of the few field armies to benefit from the arrival of new artillery in 193841. Here, one of its Soviet-made 76mm pack howitzers is in action in Hunan province in early May 1945. Within a few weeks these had been replaced by units with American 75mm pack howitzers. Rear cover: Light tank of the 1st Provisional Tank Group approaching Myitkyina in December 1944.

ISBN 978-1-910294-42-0

eISBN 978-1-912174-46-1

Mobi ISBN 978-1-912174-46-1

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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A soldier of the 29th Army shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge incident.

Chinese soldiers on guard duty near Tianjin in July 1937.

Troops attacking near Shanghai, September 1937.

An 82mm mortar crew provides fire support outside Shanghai in November 1937.

Troops in fairly obvious defensive positions outside Tianjin in August 1937.

Well-turned-out riflemen belonging to a division in east China in mid-1945. ( J. Wisebram )

A mortar unit of the 2nd Division, 52nd Army, of Chiangs reserves, 1 August 1944.

A column of 75mm M1897 guns on the road from Liuzhou to Guiyang, October 1944.

Troops of the CAIs New 6th Army at Zhanyi, China, 8 April 1945.

Troops of the 54th Army on the Red River in Yunnan, 9 August 1945.

Y-Force infantry overlooking the Salween River in June 1943.

Troops of the 64th Regiment, 22nd Division, under mortar fire near Inkangahtawng, Burma, in May 1944.

Troops of the 3rd Battalion, 226th Infantry Regiment, 76th Division, fire their 82mm mortar on Pingka Ridge on 1 June 1944.

Bazooka teams from the CEFs 346th Regiment, 116th Division, prepare for the final assault on Tengchong on 1 August 1944.

A 4.5-inch howitzer of Y-Force with its mule team en route to the front, 9 September 1944.

CAI soldiers with a Thompson and a cut-down M1917 meet a CEF soldier with a CKS rifle in Burma.

Troops of the 88th Regiment, New 30th Division, crossing the Shweli River in Burma on bamboo rafts, January 1945.

A guerrilla column in Hunan prepares to move out, 22 February 1945.

Infantry at rifle drill in February 1931. ( Bundesarchiv 102-11214 )

A special service (guard) platoon of the 32nd Army in 1935.

A cook of the 38th Division in Burma.

A mortar company of a division in east China being inspected by a visiting US Army team in 1945. ( J. Wisebram )

A 76mm pack piece in full recoil while serving as field army artillery in May 1945.

A Maxim of the 57th Regiment of the 19th Division in action in Hebei, May 1945.

Cavalry of the 29th Army prewar.

The Tiger Company pauses during a road march prewar.

The Dragon Company preparing for a demonstration in 1942.

Pristine equipment and full uniform, seen here in March 1944 in Yunnan, mark the mechanized force as an elite unit.

An M3 light tank with its turret removed to make an improvised scout and command vehicle in Burma.

Light tank of the 1st Provisional Tank Group approaching Myitkyina in December 1944.

Chinese Shermans, probably training at Ramgahr in 1944.

A 15cm mortar of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Heavy Trench Mortar Regiment, supporting the 348th Infantry Regiments attack on Tengchong in August 1944.

A mortar of 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, CAI Heavy Mortar Regiment, being moved by cart near Wakaung, Burma, in April 1944.

A battery command post of the 32nd Army on maneuvers in 1935.

A Soviet-made 76mm pack howitzer of 74th Army in action in Hunan province in early May 1945.

A Bofors 75mm mountain gun of the KMT in full recoil on manuevers about 1933.

A horsed field artillery unit on parade early in the war, with Japanese-type 75mm guns.

One of the surviving Bofors mountain guns in about 1942.

A pair of Russian-made 76mm M02/30 field guns at the FATC, May 1944.

A mule-pulled 4.5-inch howitzer in Burma, September 1944.